Bóg nieskory do gniewu ‒ bogaty w miłosierdzie (Ps 103)

Abstract

In Psalm 103, God is portrayed as full of mercy, slow to anger. The author asks himself: how can one conciliate the picture of God who in His mercy heals the sinner with the image of God who is angry. The author analyzes several ways in which God's mercy is revealed in relation to the sinner and various forms of sin. Mercy means God's way ofleading man away from evil, from the sin of pride, and particularly idolatry. Sins, which destroy man and tear him away from God arouse anger in God. The author proves that God, in showing mercy to man who realizes the effects of his sins and calls to Him, removes in this way the cause of His anger. There are two images of God in Psalm 103 and in other Old Testament texts which are not in contradiction: a God of mercy and a God of anger. However, they should be seen dynamically: anger invokes mercy, which is always possible then, when man turns to God, who is God of the Covenant.